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Well – didn’t the Aussies take the mighty pork sword of justice to those Indian blighters in Adelaide yesterday, wot? Yes they did, and most immutably.
Every sports fan has a bucket list of some kind. We’ve all got a fixture that needs attending at some point in our lives.
And so our Michael Clarke’s fired off at the hip at something that’s upset him.
Well, Jarryd Hayne, eh? Tell you what, you’re writing about Jarryd Hayne this week you best make liberal use of the word “allegedly” because Jarryd Hayne has allegedly ripped off some fairly, shall we say, unusual alleged sex action.
In the English summer of 1999 I was working in London, in Hammersmith, in a funny big cylinder-shaped building called The Ark. A smoker then, I’d nip down every so often and light up a gasper, and have a yarn with whoever was about.
Rugby Australia chief Raelene Castle has been making calls. Ringing around. Trying to find someone to be sole selector of the Wallabies.
And so! The long hot summer of cricket is here and it’s cricket season again, again, and people are running about in long white pants in the sun and it’s good to be alive! Can you sing Hallelujah like Nick Cave did at Glastonbury in ‘98?
And so another one bites the dust as the chairman of the Cricket Australia board, David Peever, feels the chilling finger of fate upon his neck and reads the writing scrawled in goat’s blood on the wall, and falls upon his sword lest someone thrust the bejewelled dagger of Conan into his back.
It’s a cloudy and woolly-wet morning on Sydney Harbour as the men’s and women’s eights from Sydney University and Melbourne University prepare to contest The Australian Boat Race, a facsimile of The Boat Race that Oxford and Cambridge contest each year on the River Thames.
I will not watch Jeff Horn and Anthony Mundine fight one another for a long list of reasons, many of which could be cut-n-pasted from a piece I wrote two years ago when I vowed not to watch Mundine fight Danny Green in Adelaide.
I’m sorry. I know it’s a great result for the grand final and for Billy Slater and for Melbourne Storm, and the greater vibe and the mojo and all that.
The Sam Burgess thing? Please. What is doing? Why do we care? Do we care? Who cares? Who is it that cares? Pop quiz: hands up if you care.
If Sam Burgess didn’t drop the ball four times against Melbourne Storm in that ball-tearer of a final at AAMI Park last Friday night, then South Sydney would’ve won.
So – then there were eight, eh? The magnificent eight. The top eight. The quite good eight. The eight.
The National Rugby League is the most even competition in the world. And that’s not anecdotal. It’s fact. Mathematics prove it.
Andrew Fifita should not be. He’s an anomaly; a giant, a roly-poly lump with a top half that’s tattooed, hefty and thick – a true Son of Tonga – and the skinny legs of his indigenous half.
Fraser Anning wants a ban on Muslim immigration to Australia and a return to the White Australia Policy. And I wish a virulent pox upon him.
Being surprised and even upset that Ivan Cleary’s been approached to coach Penrith Panthers though he has two years to run on his contract with Wests Tigers is like being part of a community of swingers and upset that your partner is now attracted to someone with whom they’ve just rocked the Casbah.
So I’m sitting here watching 27 replays of Korbin Sims’ elbow maybe grazing the grass before he grounded the football to score a hat-trick before half-time against the Dogs, and I’m ever convinced the double-movement law is an ass.
Ha. Nice one. Worse things for sheets to smell like than cricket bat.
Roll on summer of cricket, roll on
That, Maxwell, is a horrible tale.
Ha. Fair to say it tested the premise that pain is not just an emotion.
Roll on summer of cricket, roll on
Nah mate, it was actually relatively light. Not a Hurricane. It was just a “twin-scoop”, I think, with Hookesy’s signature embedded in it. Cracking bit of willow.
Roll on summer of cricket, roll on
Ha. By interesting I believe you mean completely wrong, Paul, but thanks. And yeah Sutto’s a good fella. They love him down Maroubra. Reckon junior coach would be good role for him.
John Sutton: Peak Bunny
Ha. Blind hope! The best kind.
Go the V. Here is hopin.
But I’m afraid, my man, the Hot Broncs are gonna towel you up in Vegas.
First sits two points ahead of eighth. You pick a winner
Ha. Broncos premiership wouldn’t be a nightmare for me. Nor would Storm, not really. My team’s out the back door on Mad Monday the Daily Tele couldn’t even be bothered sending peeping toms to.
First sits two points ahead of eighth. You pick a winner
I’ll be here, Rook. And I’ll stand by “Saints are rubbish” until they aren’t. Hope they come good. Can’t see it.
Can you? Is there cause of optimism among the Red V people?
First sits two points ahead of eighth. You pick a winner
Yeah, you could make a case for the Dragons, but not a good one, for mine. Be laughed out of court. But then stranger things have happened. The Cows made the grand final last year without Thurston. Donald Trump’s president. People watch old mate the Beaver whatever his name is, Honey Badger, on a reality dating show. Kooky times.
First sits two points ahead of eighth. You pick a winner
True. Yet Griffin didn’t want it broken, presumably. Gus has exercised the option to break it, punt him and pay him out. And then the Tigers coach as a replacement, that the Tigers believe lacks integrity, presumably at least until they gain satisfaction, which could only come in the form of cash from Panthers world of pokies, and/or a better coach than Ivan. As Marina said: it’s business. I think bandying about Loyalty and Integrity in matters of business… they’re not words generally connected with business.
Breaking Bad: League contracts are signed in invisible ink
Don’t quite take your point, Paul. Journos can’t write Fiction, they’d be out of a job. You can write Opinion though, and it’s never wrong.
FWIW I’m a freelance, sole trader. Like a sub-contractor though I sign no contract and have no employer as such, just a series of Publishers I knock out stuff for. Bit like footy players, indeed we share a union (with Actors), though they sign contracts that don’t appear worth much if both parties agree they want out of em. Which was my point.
I’m not quite across yours.
Breaking Bad: League contracts are signed in invisible ink
Thanks. I think.
Origin's great shift: How New South Wales ended Queensland's dynasty to start an empire of their own
Agreed. But you did read this bit “Yet this is not to say we’re looking at a decade of Blue Time. This is not to suggest we’re at the start of a Cleary dynasty”.
And this bit, which I quite liked because I could include Jake the Mus in Star Wars:
“he Maroons can win series in the next few years on the back of their generation next. Fact. Queensland is like a veritable breeding ground for league people. Seen that bit in one of the dud Star Wars prequels, where there’s all the stormtroopers cloned from Jake the Muss? That’s every town in Queensland from Cooktown to Coolangatta.”
Origin's great shift: How New South Wales ended Queensland's dynasty to start an empire of their own
Thanks Graham. My bad. Looks like the Sub-editors fixed that.
Cody Walker … is going gangbusters for the Bunnies on the left with Johnny Sutton, and R.Jennings is leading try-scorer because of it. And … I think he needs another season of shit-hot footy, as Keary’s had, before he’s in the conversation. Could be just me. Maybe a premiership and a hot start to 2019, and Freddy comes a-callin… I think not ATM, just cos incumbents.
Origin's great shift: How New South Wales ended Queensland's dynasty to start an empire of their own
Y’know I reckon the interchange down to six is going to mean there’s less like Shannon and more like Angus Crichton who’s name I didn’t bother to spell check, and now feel bad. There’ll still be a place for the Giant Orc … but three of them you’d think would be a luxury late in the game that the little zippy ones could exploit.
The Bunnies' pigs have made them top dogs
Mick Hancock. Bit like Chicka Ferguson. They’d beat 8 blokes, 3 of them twice.
Forty years of footy favourites
Bang on, Griggso. Indeed if you type Matt Bowen magic into Google you’ll find YouTube full of fun. Loved him.
I’m gonna dig up the story I did on him from 08. Still one of my faves.
Forty years of footy favourites
Ha. Very ordinary picks. Though in my defence … no, there is no defence. Ha.
What I sort of tried to do was guess who’d be a slider, if you like … went with Dragons and Souths, when Cows and Eels and Manly would’ve been better.
But I wasn’t going with them. Early March, they were all good.
Just how wrong can a pre-season ladder prediction be?
Ha. Very ordinary picks. Though in my defence … no, there is no defence. Ha.
What I sort of tried to do was guess who’d be a slider, if you like … went with Dragons and Souths, when Cows and Eels and Manly would’ve been better.
But I wasn’t going with them. Early March, they were all good.
Just how wrong can a pre-season ladder prediction be?
Manly, Parra and Cows are the three weird ones. Especially Cows. How can they have such prime cattle, and be so ordinary? Two JTs alone should be carving up the comp, much less Morgan, Coote, Hess, McLean, Scott, Bolton, Cooper and the rest of their very good ones such as Justin O’Neil and Kane Linnett and Jake Granville. Something crook in Tallarook, surely.
Just how wrong can a pre-season ladder prediction be?
Yeah I take your point, a bit, but I don’t reckon the perceived quality of your fellow players and/or the competition at the time should come into it. You can only be the best of the best there is, at that time … Thus when Brian Bevan was running around, the England comp. was as strong as Sydney, maybe stronger, and their international team won as many as we did. A numbers / historian could debate this better. That’s just what I reckon – if you’re the best of your era, that’s all you can be.
The Immortals: A concept drenched in wine
My but I hate getting things wrong. Thanks mate.
I’ll see about fixing that.
The Immortals: A concept drenched in wine
Yeah there’s the rub, for mine. As per the original “contest” between marker and ball-player. They brushed the contest that was originally between two sets of feet in a “ruck”, so why the need to play it with one’s feet? Tradition?
Rugby league is not a rubbish game, it doesn't know what it is
Can’t argue.
Why, though, does the attacker have to play the ball with his feet?
Rugby league is not a rubbish game, it doesn't know what it is
I remember that line … and how the pics illustrated the best way to walk off with dignity… had a picture of someone doing it, Greg Chappell I think: bat under the arm, take gloves off, get off. It was such a bible.
Roll on summer of cricket, roll on